OTTAWA — Now that the curtain has lowered on the Soup Opera that played out at a teepee near Parliament Hill for six weeks, MPs return Monday to the other folly known as question period.

Since the last session ended in a near slap down between NDP House leader Nathan Cullen and Conservative House leader Peter Van Loan, there's still room for MPs to take decorum to new lows — and they'll likely find a way.

So while Canadians groan at their behaviour, the Conservatives will carry on with an agenda heavy on the economy, international affairs and domestic irritants such as buying new fighter jets and addressing aboriginal grievances.

On the economy, pressing the Americans to approve the permits to complete the Keystone XL pipeline and a new span at the Windsor-Detroit border crossing are critical to the government's long-term bottom line and erasing its deficit by 2015 in the face of dwindling tax revenues.

Globally, Canada's involvement in helping France fight terrorists in Mali and the size of the commitment the prime minister is considering will face scrutiny.

The Middle East and North Korea will continue to dominate the foreign affairs file as will fiscal troubles in the eurozone and the U.S.

The budget will be the cornerstone of this session and considering the uproar against the last pair of cluster-bomb implementation bills, including aboriginal blockades, the Conservatives are vulnerable to renewed protests and civil disobedience by the so-called Occupy crowd and militant aboriginals.

And with Prime Minister Stephen Harper dragging his feet to replace the outgoing parliamentary budget officer, opposition MPs have more ammunition to attack the government on its own promises of transparency and accountability.

Politically, the Liberals will be distracted by a leadership race and will leave it to their interim leader to latch on to the nearest microphone and pray he stays on script and doesn't steer the party to an unwanted policy or position on the fly.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair has the most to win or lose while the Liberals are engrossed in finding a saviour to be crowned April 14.

With polls showing NDP support softening, the big question will be whether Mulcair can recapture the spotlight and provide a moderate and coherent argument for democratic socialism.

And he will have to begin convincing Canadians the NDP isn't the tax-and-spend bogeyman the Conservatives have so far been successful in framing in tough economic times.

As Advertised in the Winnipeg SUN

Will MPs behave badly when House returns?

Now that the curtain has lowered on the Soup Opera that played out at a teepee near Parliament Hill for six weeks, MPs return Monday to the other folly known as question period.

Since the last session ended in a near slap down between NDP House leader Nathan Cullen and Conservative House leader Peter Van Loan, there's still room for MPs to take decorum to new lows — and they'll likely find a way.

So while Canadians groan at their behaviour, the Conservatives will carry on with an agenda heavy on the economy, international affairs and domestic irritants such as buying new fighter jets and addressing aboriginal grievances.

The NDP wants the government to give money to the United Nations agency in Gaza that Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird rebuked this week because terrorist rocket launchers were found in one of its schools.